Mechanical fasteners are utilized to bind a variety of materials. While there are a great variety of mechanical fasteners, a few specific examples includes rivets, lock-bolts, screws, and the like. To facilitate a relatively strong and durable bond, mechanical fasteners are typically installed according to a manufacturer's recommended procedure. Often, these procedures include the application of a specified force to permanently deform the fastener. For example, rivets, lock-bolts, and various crimped connectors are installed in such a manner.
In relatively high technology industries, such as the aerospace industry, it is important that each fastener perform its function with a sufficiently high degree of precision to maintain fastener integrity. In this regard, these fasteners are often manually inspected following installation. Prior art procedures for this inspection involve carefully placing a series of indicator cards upon each fastener and visually inspecting the points of contact to determine fastener compliance. Other prior art procedures include precisely measuring several dimensions of each fasten and manually comparing the measured values to a table of allowable values. Unfortunately, these prior art procedures are tedious, time consuming, prone to human error, expensive, and/or lack the ability to audit. As such, an improperly installed fastener having undesirable material and/or electrical properties may result.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus capable of overcoming the disadvantages described herein at least to some extent.